Monday, June 23, 2008

Multiples: How Much Is Too Much?

If you're like me, you've been frustrated by the diminutive diameter of your road bike headset bearings. Sprinting with a 1 1/8" front end is like balancing an unabridged dictionary on a sewing needle. And as for a 1" setup, it's hard to imagine anybody ever rode a bicycle like that. I strongly believe than any still left should be forcibly removed from the road, and if you're still riding one then you must be stupid, suicidal, or both.

Fortunately, the big bike manufacturers have heard our demands and seem to be moving towards a new headset "standard," this being a 1 1/8" bearing on top and an even larger 1 1/4" bearing on the bottom. I had originally been waiting for road bike headsets to go to 1 1/4" top and bottom before upgrading, because I'm convinced that's where things are headed and I think right now head tubes are in an awkward "Popeye's arm" stage. However, it looks like I'm going to need a new bike sooner than I intended, since I smashed my last one to bits Pete Townshend-style this past weekend after failing to win yet another road race due entirely to my outmoded front end setup. (Though to be fair my lack of an eleventh cog was also partly to blame.)

As such, I spent the rest of the weekend researching new bikes, which consisted mostly of reading reviews online while picking my teeth with a shard of carbon fiber from my freshly-shattered frame. One particularly attractive line of bikes is the '09 Giant line-up. It's got all the features I require: Popeye's arm head tube with a logo that spans both the head tube and the fork (head tube/fork-spanning logos are the frame URLs of the new millennium), enormous tubes everywhere else, and integrated everything. But more than anything else, what caught my eye was this:

Yes, that's Cyclingnews reviewer James Huang's name right there on the top tube. I may be wrong, but I'm guessing this is Giant's way of tickling his ego a bit and making him feel all pro and special while he's testing out their new line-up. This got me thinking: at what point to you have access to so many bicycles that you can no longer differentiate them? I'm not saying this is the case with James, but generally speaking wouldn't all these bikes eventually melt together into one big, sticky, sickly sweet mass of crotch candy? I mean, let's be frank: high-end race bikes are luxury items, and when you're constantly surrounded by luxury you may be appreciative at first but after awhile you get really comfortable, start taking it for granted, and eventually become addicted to the luxury itself. (I stayed in a Holiday Inn recently so I know what I'm talking about.)

I maintain it's important to limit the number of bicycles you have so you can appreciate the differences between them. In cycling as in life, the excitement is in the contrasts. So how do you know if you have too many bikes and you're getting soft? Well, if you have any of the following, you're probably there:

An Inside Bike

Do you have a perfectly good bicycle that you keep only to use inside on rollers or on a trainer of some kind? This is simply excessive. Bikes are for outside. Having an inside-only bike is like having an inside-only outfit--not a pair of flannel pajamas or something, but rather a flowing, silk ensemble with lots of embroidery. Who do you think you are, Hugh Hefner?

An A La Recherche du Temps Perdu Bike

This is a bicycle you keep only for nostalgic purposes. It could be that Paramount you always coveted in your youth and then finally purchased on eBay, or that Skyway TA your friend had when you were kids and then you painstakingly recreated vintage bit by vintage bit. Sure, if you're actually riding the thing I suppose it's OK, but if you simply keep it inside and post pictures of it on relevant internet galleries I'd argue that's excessive. When your stable of bikes can be described as Proustian it may be time to start thinning the proverbial herd.

A Fluid Bike

Last week we saw the dangers of having specific bikes for specific beverages. Coffee bikes, beer bikes, Orange Julius bikes--where does it end? (I admit I have an Orange Julius bike complete with handlebar-mounted cup holder, but I did get rid of my A La Recherche du Temps PerduCW Dizz Hicks replica and studded leather halter top in order to make room for it.) Trust me, not every liquid requires a specific bicycle in order to fetch it. Surely some people are just some bike lust and a case of anemia away from owning a hemoglobin bike. Actually, isn't that what Astana rides?

A Doppelganger Bike

Hoarding is a dangerous impulse, and it's one to which all too many cyclists fall victim. If you're not a hoarder you probably know one--we've all encountered the guy who's afraid they might stop making his favorite pedal or something so he stockpiles enough to last him three lifetimes. Well, the hoarding impulse can extend to complete bikes. Some people like a bicycle so much they feel compelled to replicate it. Just in case. Having a duplicate bicycle is OK if you're a really good cyclocross racer. Otherwise, it's excessive.

A Fixed/Singlespeed Iteration of a Bike You Already Have

Many people who own multiple bikes have a singlespeed and/or a fixed-gear in there somewhere, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong though with the person who's got every conceivable bicycle and so he starts from the beginning and builds fixed or singlespeed versions of all the bicycles he already has. This is a variant of the hoarding disorder. You've got the 'cross bike, now you need the singlespeed 'cross bike. You've got the titanium century bike, now you need the fixed titanium century bike. If gone untreated, this doubles over on itself and you start building geared versions of your singlespeed or fixed bikes. Then one day you're just riding around in circles in front of your house on a bike with a carbon belt drive and a Rohloff hub, naked and sobbing to yourself. And I don't want to see that happen to anybody.

An Occasion Bike

A bicycle is a tool, and you certainly need the right tool for the right job. That's why many of us own more than one bicycle. But if you've got too many tools eventually you yourself become the tool. It starts with having a beater bike. Then a rain bike. Then a coffee bike. (See "fluid bikes.") Then a Sunday morning bagel-getter. Then a loaner bike in case your friend visits from out of town and wants to go mountain biking. Then a post road ride road bike. (You know, just to shake out the legs.) Then a pit bike. Then a pit bike for your pit bike. Eventually you're buying one of those Worksman bikes just in case someone invites you to a barbecue and wants you to bring hot dogs or something. Guess what? It's OK not to have the exact bike for every occasion. It's OK to carry hot dogs on your Orange Julius bike once in awhile, really. (Just don't stick them in the handlebar-mounted cup holder like pencils.)

A Grant Petersen Iteration of a Bike You Already Have

So you have the go-anywhere bike. You have the singlespeed go-anywhere bike. Naturally, you now need Grant Petersen's take on the singlespeed go-anywhere bike. Or do you? Just because something has received the Rivendell treatment by getting lugs and a really tall head tube doesn't mean you need it, no matter how eloquent the website copy is.

So next time you're contemplating adding a new bike to your fleet, stop and ask yourself: "Do I really need it?" Then ask yourself, "In the event of a fire, if I could only save one of my bikes, which one would it be?" In my case I know exactly which it would be. It would be the one with the largest diameter headset. (Or maybe the Orange Julius bike.)

BS/RTMS. You forgot to add onr other catagory, the folding +/or midget version of a bike you never had. Your bike fleet is not complete with out one of these.http://www.daewoobicycles.com/shuttle.htm.I hope to go fixed on mine soon.

bike-hoarding (or it's variant, bike-part hoarding) is only a short step away from panty hoarding. as in, mountain of panties in living room (or play-room, as space allows), rolling around naked in them, and so forth. If bike parts weren't so damn pokey, I'm sure many people would do just that . . .

hehehe..I have a burrito bike...40 pound raleigh sturmey archer three speed (with the original pump!) i tell people its only to go to the burrito shop and back (3 blocks) but I ride it downtown (Boston) a lot. My girlfriend has the step through version (she has a horn, I have a bell) and we go on dates with it.

and yes a rain bike (japanese masi) and yes an inside bike - trainer only (old volpe from when i was fat) and my commuter bike is a single speed (langster) and then there is of course Darlene (Lynskey ti)..but that's it!

I propose that one should have two bikes for every room in their home that has room for a floor to ceiling rack. I mean, really, they hold two bikes each so the math just works. That and a floor pump and then you too can be a cyclist.

I don't know what Grant Peterson's take is on the hot dog-Orange Julius bike, but I bet he's adamant about keeping a solid fistful of distance between your Hebrew National and your large 3-Berry Blast Smoothie.

Sure, staying at a Holiday Inn may let you know about luxury, but staying at a Holiday Inn Express makes you know about everything.

And on an unrelated note, a friend of mine bought a second litespeed identical to his first to send out and have made into a breakaway suitcase-packable version. He's gonna have to fly with that thing a whole bunch of times to pay back his oversized baggage fees.

Tributes usually begin with "in the immortal words of George Carlin..."

Here on RTMS blog there is an ever frantic race by commenters to seem witty and wry and ingratiate themselves to BSNYC and garner high fives all-round. Unattributed little funnies appear all of the time. I hereby change Bluenoser's handle to Brownnoser. So there.

I hate to get technical here... but, I think a group or collection of bikes is correctly termed a "stable"; not a "fleet" or "herd."

Only a newbie would make the mistake of calling his collection of skis anything other than a "quiver." And you're likely to get a tar and feather treatment if you call your collection of geese anything other than a "gaggle."

You left off your list (hopefully not on purpose) the compulsive, too-good-to-pass-up, Craigslist frame purchase. These bikes are tantalizingly dangled in front of you like the trash magazines and candy they leave near the grocery store checkout counter.

Who among you can pass up the title of, “would make a great fixie?” My entire shed is lined with ill-sized, lugged steel, Fuji frames that will, indeed, make great fixies.

Well, you obviously liked him enough to try to pass his shtick off as your own.

Given that your blog already has sort of sad attempts at BSNYism all over it, and now this, I recommend that you go away. KevinFtMeyers has posted the correct spelling of poseur for you, so you could spend your time looking that up.

wow. i wonder how many other people are shocked at how many categories they fit into. I'm definitely a hoarder. If I had to change the setup on my bike I would cry.. and I already have a backup set of handlebars and a seatpost.... (in my defense, they don't make enough varieties of women's sized handlebars)...

i have a nostalgia bike and my husband has an indoor bike and i'm building up 2 more. whoa.i feel like i just went to therapy.

My wife and I each have a rain bike, a townie/commuter, and a road bike with drops. Hers are all single speed. Mine are all fixed.

We also share a grocery bike. It remains outdoors until the snow flies and has enough baskets to be dangerous when fully loaded.

We have no trouble considering all of the bikes mentioned so far as indispensable, but we also have a fifty year old 3 speed that only gets used when someone visits and a couple of antique children's bikes that we race around the back yard (or basement) when we get drunk.

I could assemble another two or three bikes with the parts we have lying around. I fight the urge to build, but I feel that I am growing weak.

We suspect we have a problem, but if we do, we don't know where it begins. What do you think?

How about this one, youve got a frame lying around you want to build up, so you buy a parts bike to get the 3 or 4 parts youre missing off of it. Then you have another partial bike lying around so you trade some shit for some parts to finish it.

Or worst of all, you have a valve cap extra, but its really cool valve cap, so you build a bike around it!

First it's like this. For one I meant no disrespect for the departed George Carlin. As a matter of fact I did not even know that he had come up with that line, I thought I was stealing it from my friend Alistar in Cape Breton.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because we are so backward and stupid up here in Canada, I thought that he passed away on Sunday. Let me go warm up the tubes on my RCA Victor and try and catch the news tonight.

The comment was directed to Snob. I didn't know you we his co writer. He didn't seem to have a problem. I also just have a blog for my own pass time here in the middle of nowhere, but if you want to say I'm copying someone, well why not someone good?

So I'm sorry ( we Canadians are great at saying sorry ) if I hurt your feelings.

Can I stay now or do I still have to go away.

Sorry again for not knowing how to spell. We all can't be perfect I gusse.

Hello! Before I got to know Kevin, I was nothing, nowhere, nobody! I was stuck in a room reading voiceovers I could barely understand! And then, I got to know him, and now I get to be on TV! And today, they call me.. Don Pardo!

How about this, my son is 5, hes on his 4th bike, hes currently sporting an 18lb MCS micro with the 1 1/8 tires and a 40/16 with 145mm cranks, friggn kid books it on the street, and cant stop smiling on the track.

He already knows most of the components on a bike and likes looking at other peoples bike to size them up.

...annazed...listen, i'm not gonna slam on your reactions to your perceived insulting of the now passed on george carlin...but whoa, woman, hold up a bit...

...i too will always be a fan of ol' george because his work lives on through various media formats...& while george carlin was extremely erudite, he always found wonderfully simple, 'down to earth', funny as hell, thought provoking ways of conveying the truth he saw around him...

...sometimes he was even goofy but the man was fucking brilliant & one thing george would probably have loved as a tribute would be having his irreverence appreciated...

...so no need to call out folks for perceived slights & create defensive posturing...& ya, this is one of those times when i'm being serious because i truly was shocked & saddened to see george's passing...

...so, R.I.P. george carlin...you were as honest in your comedy, as you were funny...

Has anyone touched on the graveyard aspect of their collection (or group or stable or fleet or herd)? I have two mod trials frames that are no longer ridable because of cracks and bent chainstays... For some reason they're still hanging around alongside my current trials bike, park/dj bike, and 3 track bikes.

Wait a tick... listing that, I just realized I need to fill a "bike with gears" slot.

but snob my inside bike is so fucked up i couldn't ride it. well, at least not without a hoard of teenagers brandishing their video/cells waiting for some horrible face plant to occur so they could youtube me/it onto the interweb. i removed the quill 3 years ago in a futile effort to remove the fork. stripped the threads outta the cranks trying to get at the bb. now there's at least 1/2" of slop tho i tell myself that it's improving my stroke. the rim tape on the front disappeared a while ago and some pushed spokes make inflating a waste of time. probably end up drilling/cutting my way to replace bb but still better than tossing it on top of the walmart shit pile at the local dump. ps. no geese all wknd. what kind of horrors are you pricks cooking up now?

I'll admit I have quite the stable of bicycles. If you only have one bike, well then you're just a dork who can't afford a car and is too fragrant for the bus. My stable now includes:The Pro bike: a $13,000 special with every logo possible covering the entire frame and every part, these parts change daily according to what the UCI pros are riding, and of course is on the UCI weight limit of 6.8kgs. Of course, it has 5 inches of handlebar drop, a carbon saddle (not carbon fiber, pure carbon) and is unridable past three blocks. Unlike the "Huang", I had the name and phone number of my chiropractor placed on the top tube. The seat tube holds 25 Viagra pills necessary from the fit. The big bucks are due to the name brands. The stealth bike Same as above, except with all the logos removed. The Car Carrier Bike Problem: my hatchback holds my expensive road bike out of site, but then how do I show people on the freeway I'm a 'roadie'? Solution: the carrier bike, which is actually a duplicate bike that fits under a black Campagnolo lycra cover. It screams "look at me" and "fuck off" at the same time in perfect balance. The Tufnel Bike Custom made steel frame made by Tibetan philosophers. 100% ceramic. Never ridden, not even looked at. The Craigslist bike Again, never ridden, just waiting for that one part to come up on Craigslist. Occasionally, I like to crank up the handlebars and tilt the seat at wild angles and post it for sale as "rare".and my newest steed: The Fixed 11-speed Bike This is a 11-speed Super Record bike with the rear deraileur not cabled, best of all cool worlds.

I'm currently saving up for the fixed electronic group bike. The LCD display flashes "1" and it switches from 1 to 1 in a millisecond. Battery life is a bitch.

I've got 6.5 bikes at the moment. One road bike has a Klein stem, though not a Klein frame/fork. One day, the LBS was selling Klein stems for literally $1 ea so I bought 2 (hoarder?). When I went to install one, I realized that the stem was 1 1/16" diameter, which required a ship to fit my 1" fork. Even back then, Gary realized that his riders might need that "little push over the cliff," though now he's evidently 3/16" short.

I forgot one other bike: The Parking Garage Bike This is strapped to the top of a minivan while driven into a parking garage at 30 mph while holding onto a latte while wearing my "Dentists for the Cure" lycra kit.

Here's my little quick aero bars test: Can you waive at other cyclists will riding in your aero position? No, then keep practicing. When I notice that over 50% of tri dorks are able to waive back at me when I waive to them, I'll stop making fun of them. For now, the percentage is holding steady at 3%, which makes it hard to believe that they are not a disaster waiting to happen.

Sorry Annazed, i will work on that. I'm french and we love useless letters in the middle of words, especially "I" since we're all conceited (or should it be conceded?). I am glad you're not ticked off about it or anything though.

ant1, oh you are French. Well, that's alright then. In fact you do pretty well in English. I will not say that I have even been extended any grace from French people in France on my own pathetic attempts to speak French, but in their defense my attempts are very, very bad.

I usually enjoy reading your posts but this one hit a little too close to home, your starting to sound like my girlfriend snobbie. I'm not sick, I can stop whenever I want, besides my barn is only half full.

Given the state of the economy and the generally accepted response to every crisis is 'go shopping' I'd suggest the the answer to the central question posed by today's addition to the BSNYC manifesto is:

As many as you can purchase or get some one else to purchase via persuasion or theft.

Buy a bike for every occasion, member of your family, lovers, neighbors, strangers passed in the night or task at hand. The resulting demand for locked storage will also revitalize the construction industry and in no time America's GDP growth rate will rival China and India combined.

RTMS thank you, thank you for posing the question whose patriotic answer will increase personal debt and make Trek the new Northrup Grumman of carbon fiber consumption.

May I just add the too-good-to-be-true unpainted top-of-the-line carbon-fiber ghost-frame that is supposedly on its way directly from the TenTech factory floor that I recently "purchased." Since it is in all likelihood unreal, we can just say the thing is occupying too much space in the part of my brain labeled "sucker" -- doing my best to clear it out immediately. The larceny in my veins got the best of me.

A little while ago I emailed you about my friend with 5 bikes who refuses to sell any of them. Now he's talking about getting a mountain bike for some reason... I dunno where he plans to store all this shit when we're living together next year, but there's no way in hell it's going to be in the hallway or anywhere near my room.

"Kevin dear, you are everything that people who work in bike shops hate, and I do mean HATE, about customers (a necessary evil) - regardless of how hard and long they grin at you at:"

And you my dear are why the internet bike biz is BOOMING!

High markups, shitty stock, mechanics that dont know any more than anyone whose taken apart a bike and put it back together.

Been in the bike route, nice guys in there, but they would rather sell a newbie a $1000+ cannondale than talk bike with you. Doubt you could get my name. Always pay cash, no special orders.

My shop is Ft Myers cyclery. Owner is an old roadie, has some nice classics hanging from the rafters and its 1 mile from my house. Buy my family's bikes in there but none of my stuff.

Dont know what kind of shop youre in but if they actually have bike salespeople Im sure its a big box store with plenty of corporate bike company representation.

The shops I would love to frequent dont exist here. Shops that are more like skate shops, with frames and components and you go in and pick your stuff and they build a bike for you. No salespeople, just a good mechanic with good shit building and fixing (repairing) bikes.

Another word about how lame it is where I live, I ride a trail bike here in southwest FLA on the local trails (Caloosahatchee regional Park) mostly singletrack witha few very short climbs of like 40 deg x 12ft elevation. No lie, guys out there in full spandex riding dual suspension 27 speed bikes like they are running a race at Moab or something. By the way, a geared dual suspension bike in FLA is like riding a TT bike to the store for a sixer.

Im the only guy I know riding ridgid single speed, my SS is also a 29er, I know of 1 other guy running biggins, but its geared. I dont know of anyone else riding a fixie.

I could not afford both a therapist and multiple bikes so one had to go.

Hey Frills sorry to disappoint you but males are generally a visually driven beast, unless BGW is a switch hitter or a 16 yo girl in a school library. I tried stalking Mr Fab C through Flanders but he shook me off in the last 2 kms.

Im not suggesting anyone in a shop should walk away from a sale to shoot the shit. Im a business person.

But they dont really talk bike ever, even when they are doing something mindless like assembling yet another brand new electra. Its a bike store.

Bike store = business, like a car dealership. Lots of shiny new bikes. Lots of pretty displays. When they close they get in their suv and drive home.

Bike shop = an ace mechanic selling the stuff he rides, talking bikes w/ the people who ride all the time, whether they are buying that day or not, and when the shop closes, he doesnt go home, he sits in the back for an hour drinking beers and talking bikes some more.

To other posters who may not know this simple fact: never (repeat never) enter the work area of a bike shop (where the wrenches are working) unless specifically and personally invited to do so, really never. It is rude, obnoxious and even dangerous (even assembling Electras requires concentration). People who do this are universally hated. You will know if you are welcome in that space, unless you are clueless, in which case just take this post very seriously to heart.

Kevin,I thought you were going riding. When you do and some newbie on a $10000 cannondale in full lycra smiles and says hello, smile back. You will pedal a little lighter afterwards.If you do not like the service guys do it yourself. Get a video or strip the bike down yourself. Nothing better than knowing your own bikes. I only trust one other mechanic to do my bikes. As for talking bikes I would rather ride em

More wisdom: If you find yourself feeling that the staff of the local bike shop simply will not "talk bike" with you consider the following:

Are you possibly the kind of person who once every five years or so buys a kids bike or a hybrid for the members of your family that don't merit a decent bike (that would be every member besides yourself).

Do you like to stand in stores where you have no intention of ever buying anything but said cheap family bikes gassing on and on and on about Campagnolo parts and Mavic wheels that you will never purchase?

Do you think $1,000 is a lot of money for a bike?

In which case you are right, the staff do not want to "talk bike" with you, they hate you.

I dont buy stuff from bike stores for the same reason people who know how to cook dont buy cookware from Macys. Its not what you want, and if they get you what you want you pay too much for it.

I am welcome in the pits at my normal shop, Ft Myers Cyclery, I talk bike (which includes talking about rides not components)with them on a regular basis.

As far as $1000, that is the worst value price point in the industry. Typically you are paying for a good frame with shit components or an older technology frameset dressed up with commercialy recognizable "good" components. (105, XT, Truvativ, Bontrager)

My ATB is up to about $2200...and its a hardtail singlespeed. Not one peice of shimano on it. So no, I dont think a grand is a lot for a bike, just for a BIKE STORE bike.

Kevin, you're a git. Why do you comment so prolifically here when you obviously have no clue what's going on.

We only hate you because you're wasting our reading time. I don't give a hoot what you ride , why you ride, who wrenches your ride, or what your kid rides.

I've done my time, and, as annazed has said, when you are welcome, the shop will let you know. You come across on this blog as a "know-it-all". If you were to walk into my shop with that attitude, I'd give you the briefest time of day, and look for someone less boorish to talk to.

You ride alone as your choice, or so you think. Cycling is not the solo sport you want it to be. Live for the group ride, share the work, do your pulls.

I don't think I could ride with you, but you would be one of those guys we start with, just for an incentive to ride as hard as we can to drop as soon as we can. It's not for fun, but trying to get them on board with the sport.

Bike shop = an ace mechanic selling the stuff he rides, talking bikes w/ the people who ride all the time, whether they are buying that day or not, and when the shop closes, he doesnt go home, he sits in the back for an hour drinking beers and talking bikes some more.

Which one are you in?

Aah, the real one?

Long hours, 7 days a week, taxes, payroll, insurance, paying the interest on the loan to carry the stock for a year, keeping the right stock and parts on the shelf, not spending money on something that will not move, dealing with returns and defective merchandise, dealing with loss control, hiring new people, firing dead beats, training sales people, scheduling sales and wrenches, tracking new products, meeting with reps, hosting customer development events, planing next year's inventory, keeping storage costs down, finding time to ride, develop some new track talent.

When the shop closes the registers have to be reconciled, the money deposited, calls made and returned and then spend time with the family.

What would a bike talker do with a million dollars? Open a bike shop, the money will keep them going for a year or two.

Doctor, doctor, help me out. the only thing that kept me from adding another ride to my "stable" this week was that she's out of production and not available til November.(frilly, I'd still like to name her).

andy, I'm with you on the waves, it's just cool to ride.

OBTW, Kevin, I didn't even change out of the chamois from tonight's group ride yet. I was soo interested in what you may post I couldn't wait. I guess I should've hit the shower sooner.

Im not a roadie, so group rides are not my thing, my investment (time and money) is in dirt, I ride with some buddies not alone. But I cant get out to the trails daily, so I built the fixie to ride everyday.

So no I probably dont understand, not scared to admit that.

Anna made a comment how bike shop people dont like guys like me, I responded with the reasons Im not all broken up about that.

Sprider, to sum up for both riding and surfing... It is not what you ride it is how you ride it. Paddling out , you know the hard guys just by a look and their paddling style not the lastest rig or colour of their gear. Same in a fast bunch ride. Some just don't cut it and they get left behind or crushed by the next set

I can do you one better for 09 headset size madness:Specialized (in their pathological continued quest to make even more barely-differentiated bikes) will have both the 1-1/8 + 1-1/4 headtubes and a new size: 1-1/8+1-3/8. (the word from my outside rep on the 09 Tarmac and Roubaix lines)

$250.00 firm cash only. It will be available at Union Square Park South (by the steps) on Wednesday 6/25 from 12pm-2pm.

would support that theory. Well, that and the rattle-can paint job.

I hope the owner sees the listing and shows up at Union Square to give the ass-hat a beat-down. Wish I could be there. Maybe the snob will go and take pictures. There have been these weird Fight Club things happening at Union Square lately, so, no one will care.

Shit. Took me 184 posts to realize Kevinfartmyers is really as boring as I thought.Yes, this definitely is a popularity contest, thanks for playing anyway, you get the home version of "BSNYC: The Game".

Yes, people still use the term "gay" pejoratively. I have confirmed this here in Toronto with slightly younger (thirty something) gay friends. They distinguish between "downtown gay" and "suburban gay," the latter of which seems to mean "dumb."

Annazed - are you a wrench at your shop? Cuz, a lady wrench who can use the word "pejorative" correctly in a sentence....oh, my!

Ah, no, even I must look for signals of a friendly nature to enter the wrench area. I do true my own wheels and such though I know that doesn't count. For heavier tasks I like to bribe a pro guy with hero sandwiches and snicker bars into doing it for me so it will be right.

I wonder what Koichi Yamaguchi thinks, I just saw some photos of his home on flickr. He probably has over a hundred bikes and frames tucked in every possible corner of his home and workshop. Does he have a stable, or is it a ranch?

Not fully ridgid, Fox F29 100mm out front, 40 / 16 gear ratio. Its not as hard as you think. Its all about riding with momentum, you have to carry speed through everything and keep spinning, you stop pedaling, you have to work hard to get it back.

I do have to admit though, down here at CRP we have a new double black diamond section, and I strugle, but its all designed to be that way, not really the natural lay of the land. More like they built the trail to run into and over every log, good size rock and hole they could find.

SD,Sorry to disappoint your small and jealous mind. That was not my collection, I only have a 1) and a 12 y.o. Trek 370 with down-tube shifters (use google.com to find out what they are). And dentistry is not my specialty.The list is simply a few options for someone looking for bikes (eg.BSNYC), with a little humour attached to it due to their prices. Don’t worry if you don’t see it! Repeating the post was just a way of reminding people like yourself that the blog and comments are not about you. Lightly, once again.Now, thanks for visiting amrcycling.blogspot.com (shame you didn't read the contents and/or didn't understand anything) leaving two comments with the intention of challenging me into a time-wasting war of ego nourished annotations, too often posted by disguised identities, like yourself. And I will post them so people who often read my blog can ask: Who is that SD wanker?Have a good night and good luck trying to get a “podium” placing!

Just one question: did you pay someone to take that studio-style photograph in your hidden profile?

So ya OK Twinkie boy is guilty of all of the above bike snob violations. I even tricked out my inside only bike ( Trek 1000 alpha series all aluminum) with inside trainer use only tires, ya both front and rear tires. Sooooo I even have bikes not mentioned in the Blog like the " Comb over bike " . Similiar to older guys combing hair over their bald spot I have a specific bike tricked out to make me look way faster and younger than I am . I also have a " decepticon" bike that is set up to look like a commuter with the saddle bags and all but its really a camouflaged race bike. The idea is to be riding in blue jeans and saddle bags when the spandex clad tri geek goes by tucked into the aero bars and then you bring out your A game and repass the dude with your Decepticon bike. Ya I am guilty of all of it and more. So is there a support group out there for peeps like me , until I read the article I was un willing to even admit I had any sort of Bike Snob problem at all. Currently working in my garage building up my new " Terrorist Gotcha bike" to be left unlocked downtown Menasha. I have the top tube designed so when its stolen on the 23 rd wheel rotation the hidden plastic explosives ignite and the rider is on the ground and unable to produce any future little bike thieves. Godspeed , peace out , Twinkie Boy

Sponsored Linkway:

About Me

While I love cycling and embrace it in all its forms, I'm also extremely critical. So I present to you my venting for your amusement and betterment. No offense meant to the critiqued. Always keep riding!